Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Maintaining Social Bonds
Coping with transition -- be it work, age, or health related -- consumes energy, something not in abundance for those already living on the margin of stability. With the destabilization of American society brought on by banking scandals and the consequent public sector cuts to low income programs, finding a stable living environment can be challenging--especially for seniors and the disabled.
Having weathered the initial round of dislocation and relocation associated with the foreclosure tsunami that struck landlords and tenants over the last couple years, we managed to land on our feet in a unit where we thought we might be able to survive on our social security and medicare benefits. Due to unforeseen health factors involved with our apartment, that has not turned out to be the case, and we now need to muster both the energy and expense of finding and moving into a new place--our third move in less than a year and a half.
Without getting into the difficulty of chasing down a low rent apartment in an extremely competitive tenant market, the point I guess I'm making is that the process of displacing upright good citizens like ourselves and others like us, also destabilizes neighborhoods and communities. When we are forced, through no fault of our own, to repeatedly scramble to keep a roof over our heads, we no longer have the energy to invest in maintaining social bonds that keep communities strong. Apparently, that's what the CEOs on Wall Street had in mind.
Having weathered the initial round of dislocation and relocation associated with the foreclosure tsunami that struck landlords and tenants over the last couple years, we managed to land on our feet in a unit where we thought we might be able to survive on our social security and medicare benefits. Due to unforeseen health factors involved with our apartment, that has not turned out to be the case, and we now need to muster both the energy and expense of finding and moving into a new place--our third move in less than a year and a half.
Without getting into the difficulty of chasing down a low rent apartment in an extremely competitive tenant market, the point I guess I'm making is that the process of displacing upright good citizens like ourselves and others like us, also destabilizes neighborhoods and communities. When we are forced, through no fault of our own, to repeatedly scramble to keep a roof over our heads, we no longer have the energy to invest in maintaining social bonds that keep communities strong. Apparently, that's what the CEOs on Wall Street had in mind.
